Fifty Friday Facts For Fifty Followers

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Actually, I wrote this a few weeks ago when I first hit 50 followers so it is getting rapidly out of date (now past 70 followers 🙂 ). When my friend Kylee hit 50 followers she made a list of 50 facts about herself. With her kind permission I have borrowed the idea. I am a little worried it leaves me nothing to say in future!

In the intervening time I have removed some things I decided I was not comfortable sharing, and added some new stuff. It should give you a good idea of what I am like and I have tried to infuse it with my warped sense of humour…

I am a lifelong vegetarian.

I didn’t go to my own 18th birthday party.

Bullying of any kind makes my blood boil. I detest bullies. Ignorance and upbringing is not an excuse.

I work as an analytical chemist and have done for 33 years but have no formal chemistry qualifications beyond secondary/high school level. Bluffing works!

My degree is in Biology in case the above made you wonder!

I can bend all my fingers backwards at the middle knuckle. This is just about the world’s most useless skill. Some guys get good looks, charm, big wedding-tackle and the stamina of a racehorse. What do I get? Prehensile fingers.

I suffer badly from tinnitus when stressed, tired or over-stimulated. So pretty much constant now for 7 years

I go to the work Diwali celebration, but not the Christmas one

I much prefer female company, friendship and conversation to male.

I have never been on a stag/bachelor night. But I am so proud that I have been the only man on a hen/ladies night – and, no, I wasn’t the stripper. It was certainly educational, but lovely and fun and I was very moved to be invited. The only disappointment was the lack of a pair of pink fluffy bunny ears to wear.

I am quiet, introverted, thoughtful, kind and very sensitive. And I am proud of it. I want to live in a society that sees these as strength, not weakness.

My politics are very liberal. Can you be an extreme liberal? Isn’t this an oxymoron?

I dislike the damage humans do as a species, but do like many individual people. This messes with my head.

I adore authentic vegetarian Indian food. Curry is the ONLY material thing guaranteed to make me smile. Or at least the only thing I’m likely to get.

I have a real thing for coconut. And chocolate. I strongly suspect that combining the two into the Bounty bar in 1951 was done deliberately to taunt me even though I hadn’t been born yet. My waistline and I also have a love-hate relationship with whoever recently invented the double-chocolate-dipped coconut Magnum choc-ice.

I hate courgettes (zucchini). Really seriously hate them. Omnivorous people seem to think that us veggies must like all types of vegetable. Why? We wouldn’t assume you carnivores would all like eating sea-slugs or something would we? I’d rather eat sea slug than courgette though. Courgette plants are what weedkiller was invented for.

I love mangoes! There is a Thai dessert that uses fresh mango slices with coconut sticky rice. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it.

The train used as the Hogwarts express in the movies often overwinters round the corner from my house. (I like Harry Potter – Luna is my favourite character)

Steam trains go past my garden most weekends in summer

My favourite contemporary band is Low, from Minnesota. I have only ever met one other Low fan outside of a gig – she was working behind the counter in Lush in Coventry and spotted my T-shirt. If you want to check them out – here is my favourite song: Low – Silver Rider

My favourite musical genre is late sixties psychedelia but I also love Nirvana, Hole, Queens of the Stone Age and other hard rock bands

I like horror movies (especially those directed by John Carpenter). But I really don’t like torture-porn like Hostel and Saw.

I rarely watch TV, except as DVDs.

I have never seen Game of Thrones so always look blank when people talk about it

I read my first comic-book when I was 44…but only because someone bought it for me (it was the prequel story to the Star Trek reboot incidentally).

I think I am currently having my third mid-life crisis, I’ve lost count

There are never enough hugs, ever. But people don’t think I look like a huggy person. They are so wrong

I am a suicide attempt survivor

I am scared of nothing except people. And maybe earwigs.

I like spiders and snakes

My worst anxiety attack trigger is the sound of children playing and laughing

Though growing up in pubs & clubs my father managed, the first time I drank alcohol was the toast at my wedding reception.

I am addicted to books. There is no such thing as too many books, just too few shelves.

One of my three roles at work is as database administrator. I hate it and make no secret of this. I think that the way I hold my head in my hands whenever it is mentioned is quite a good indicator.

I do not possess a smartphone and never have. I have a Nokia flip-phone which is old, ‘dumb’ and has seen better days. In many ways it therefore resembles its owner.

My golden era for movies was book-ended by two big Steven Spielberg movies – Jaws (1975) and Jurassic Park (1993). Many of my favourite movies, in every genre, were made between these dates.

I love dogs and really want one of my own

Despite the English meaning. My surname (Sleep) is from the defunct Cornish language and approximately means ‘marshy place’.

I dislike driving and have only driven once in the last two years.

I can play guitar but am badly out of practice and my fingertips have gone soft, so it hurts!

I have a back, neck and shoulder massage once per month at least. Sometimes I have a scalp and face massage too but often this makes me relax so much that I fall asleep on the table. Thankfully the therapist, Carol, finds this touching and amusing.

I am not especially religious but identified as Buddhist in the last UK census

The first movie I ever saw by myself at the cinema was Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981. It is probably still my favourite movie.

I’m more Star Trek than Star Wars but not obsessive about either.

I often do the Roger Moore sardonic single-eyebrow raise which one of my friends finds sexy, gives our niece fits of giggles and my wife is completely immune to.

My favourite colour is green

When first developing the quality system at work I had a lot of help from a young lady from New Zealand but she was tragically killed in a road accident on Christmas eve 2003 when back at home visiting family. Her favourite colour was purple and I have worn something purple for every quality assessment audit since, for luck and in her memory.

I want to have my nails painted, something in a dark metallic blue I think. Seriously – I really want to do this. I am SO jealous of women in this regard.

Published by artyplantsman

32 Comments

That’s amazing!!!! I had a great time reading those things about you 🙂 And you made me smile more than once 🙂 I’d also love to have a dog btw, found great inspiration in your monthly massage (I want that, too) and as for your nails: GO FOR IT 🙂 🙂 I’m currently working on the liebster Award post btw ❤

Thank you Martina – that is lovely 🙂
I can’t recommend the massage highly enough. The thought of going to a salon the first time was quite daunting for a man in his 40s but the girls treat me like royalty and I love being there. It is so relaxing. They do nails there too of course 😉
Dogs – check out my next post this evening – we have Molly the spaniel staying with us at the moment!

“I dislike the damage humans do as a species, but do like many individual people. This messes with my head.” This is a pretty apt description of my PTSD, actually. I have never actually filled out a Census form, which might make life horribly confusing for any genealogist descendants I might have hundreds of years from now, but if I did, I’d be tempted to call myself an Agnostic Anglo-Catholic Buddhist. Also, curry is my favorite comfort food!

I enjoyed reading this. I think you should try watching game of thrones, its really a nice movie. and sorry about your friend from new Zealand who died in the accident. Really death is a bitch and take the nicest people from the earth.

I enjoyed reading this post Darren. It confirms my first thought about you: You are one interesting soul that deserves to get to know better. Like your kindness to others, your honesty, your creativity and your sense of humour. You and I are so different and yet we share many things such as movie interests (Raiders of the Lost Ark is also one of my favourite movie – Big fan of John Carpenter and Steven Spielberg), books, science, Indian food, curry, mangoes, chilly, Harry Potter, massage, some music and even the loss of a friend in a car accident… I detest drunk drivers as much as bullies! I don’t have unfortunately any special skills such as bending my fingers (Here’s an idea for an Halloween post: Weird special skills you can do). I would love to see your Roger Moore sardonic single-eyebrow raise one day! My husband can do it too and it makes me laugh all the time. Have a great weekend my friend.

Really? Love James Bond movie themes too. My favourites are: Nobody does it better, You only live twice, Gold finger, For your eyes only, From Russia with love and of course my No 1 Live and let die! Have fun drawing. Speak to you soon I hope. -Dominique x

I agree that introversion, thoughtfulness and sensitivity should be more valued! If more people are like this, the world would be a better place 🙂 interestingly, I think preferences for this trait vary between cultures. For example, in China, introversion is seen as a neutral (if not positive) trait- people associate introversion with intelligence! There was a popular Taiwanese drama where the male love interest was a quiet guy with an IQ of 200 (people loved him!!) Growing up I never thought being an introvert was a bad thing… until I moved to Canada :’)

Congrats on fifty followers! hehe I love that your degree is in biology but you’re a chemist- that’s hilarious. I love curry! And chocolate! Yay book addiction! And I’ve never bothered to get a driver’s licence- I just don’t think it’ll be my thing 😉

Ook! Thank you. What I did’t say is that I am actually better at geology and botany than I am at either chemistry of biology. No wonder my brain hurts.
I am the black sheep of my family with regards driving as my father did driving jobs on buses etc between pub contracts and loves driving. My extreme dislike of it puzzles many people, including him.

Who could not love books? I would worry about such people!

It is our work Diwali lunch a week today and I am so looking forward to the food!

Well done on your fifty followers and thanks for the illuminating introduction as it were. Yay for curries here too. No smartphones here either. For many reasons. They are a pretty smart way to have your ass dumbed down. Plus as an introvert I don’t care much for phones in general. I totally prefer male company and conversation to female. For these and other reasons I am glad to make your blogging acquaintance officially. SP

Great to meet you too. I also dislike phones and won’t even answer the home phone even if in the same room. Drives my wife spare. I also use the caller ID on my office phone quite rigorously. My mobile number is closely guarded. I just counted up the friends numbers in it. 14 women and three men! I never make phone calls if I can avoid it but text or email is great 🙂

I’ve really enjoyed your posts! I love your honesty in your posts it is very endearing! I think remembering your colleague is so thoughtful! Life is short…don’t hold back get that dog or go to a dog sanctury to walk one weekly. Go for the nails, you should experience it at least over a weekend or while on holidays.

This is a great list and the things we have so many things in common it would be easier to list the things we don’t. Cheers for dog-loving, vegetarian, introverted, people-disliking, liberal, huggy people! Odd that we like hugs and dislike people, eh? I always say I hate people in general but love specific people fiercely. Interesting that you are in one of your mid-life crises. I’m in one of my childhoods. Don’t know which one, lost count years ago. HUGS!!! 🤗 🤗